Do you read my mind? This was on my next todo list to look into. Thanks.
A couple og questions. You didn’t mention the drop down. I’ve got a theme that let sub-pages be on the drop down, but most don’t. Or at least those I’ve been using don’t. Do you use a plugin? I think I’ve heard of a script.
The other question: some themes handle pages better than others. Let’s say if I have 5-7 pages, how do I find a theme that handles them?
Thanks again.

Homeion, Most themes I’ve used and built support drop downs though I know many don’t, this was clearly aimed at those that do. I don’t use a script per se for navigation, traditional html, css and javascript as necessary. As for how particular themes handle several pages, it’s hard for me to address in a simple answer since there are so many themes out there. I’m going to work on a tutorial about building a content map which might help a little. It also depends on how the pages are being used, all top level, mostly sub pages, …?

Jens, You’ll have to talk to Automattic about building it into the core! I know from hearing Matt talk about the core several times that it is something the do only very sparingly in an effort to keep the WordPress core as slimmed down and flexible as possible leaving things like this up to plug-ins. It’s a conscious decision on their part.

While I don’t personally use My Page Order I’ve seen it in action and it’s a great plug-in no doubt. Part of the reason for this tutorial is 1) just to give people an option and understanding of how to build scalable page navigation and 2) since I do WordPress work full time, we build the sites/themes to not over depend on Plug-ins since trying to future support every plug-in is just not practical. That’s definitely not a knock against your plug-in, I think it’s an awesome piece of work, I just prefer to build our themes as plug-in independent as possible.

Unfortunately, it was a lesson learned from experience when a plugin we regularly used wasn’t compatible with a new version of WP and my phone started blowing up with client calls who’s websites started acting funny.

Published

July 29, 2009

Creating navigation which reflects the items you want in the order you want can seem a little tricky, but Scott Ellis demonstrates a simple solution that also provides great flexibility for adding future content without having to redo what you have done.